The state of Massachusetts is lending new meaning to the line from Shakespeare’s history play, Henry VI, Part 2, when it comes to paying bar advocates. Also known as public defenders, these individuals are private attorneys who accept court appointments to represent defendants who cannot afford a lawyer. In Shakespeare’s play, the phrase is, “First, let’s kill all the lawyers.” The state seems to prefer, “First, let’s starve all the lawyers.”

Of course, that is an overstatement used to make a point. The question remains: Why, in a $60.9 billion budget, can the state not raise the pay for the bar advocate program (under $100 per hour in some courts) to at least be comparable to our neighboring New England states (from $112 per hour in Rhode Island to $125 per hour in New Hampshire)? The state’s stinginess has created a situation where attorneys who normally accept appointments as bar advocates are staging a work stoppage. I say, good for them. They should stand up for their equitable treatment and equitable pay. But it is a bad situation for the citizens of the commonwealth, one that threatens our public safety. Under Massachusetts law, indigent individuals charged with crimes from shoplifting to domestic violence to drug trafficking who are held for more than 45 days without access to a lawyer are entitled to be released from custody. Recently, in Boston, more than 100 defendants were released because of the bar advocate work stoppage.

While many attorneys in the commonwealth, and fortunately here in Franklin County, continue to work for indigent defendants, allowing them access to an attorney, it is the state that must correct this overall systemic problem of unequal pay for all of Massachusetts bar advocates. Let’s hope the attorneys and the governor’s office can come to an equitable agreement soon before more dangerous individuals held in custody are freed.

Roxann Wedegartner

Greenfield